Hello, I have a year and almost 4 month old lab cross puppy. She is quite smart, a quick learner however she is stubborn and only listens when she wants and obviously we want her to always obey our commands. The main issues we have are as follows:
1. Jumping/ getting excited/biting
When we get home from being out she will jump and sometimes play bite and that’s not the ideal reaction. We want biting to be for her toys only and we don’t allow jumping but we are not sure how to prevent this. We’ve tired ignoring this behaviour, unfortunately often times my mom and brother result to hitting or kicking her however rather than hurting her (which I know this isn’t the kind of relationship you should have with your dog) this only gets her more excited as she is a big dog and the problem only gets worse. Lately the only thing that calms her down is putting her on a leash and then she goes to lay down the majority of the time but we want to be able to have A calm welcome home to not only us but to company we have over as she is super super friendly and so easily excitable this brings me to the second issue
2. We live on an acreage that consists of a lot of open field. We used to be able to let her be free but over the last few months my mom has made the decision that she needs to be tied up all the time. We want to be able to trust her to stay on our land for both others safety and hers however whenever there is any sort of wild life (birds, coyotes, fox, rabbit etc.) she must go chase it. There is nothing that will stop her from going full tilt at whatever animal she comes across. Even when we tie her up, she has ripped through her collar once, and ripped through a rope (was already a bit cut) because she goes wild. She will bark and pull like crazy until the animal leaves. Obviously we don’t want her going after anything potentially dangerous and we want to be able to have that trust. But even if we are outside with her she will go chase them and no longer listen to us. This is the same for people but at a less extreme level. There will often be people walking or biking down the road and she will follow them sometimes, and we don’t think she would stop and come back when they get too far, we fully believe she will just follow as far and they go. She actually ran into the neighbours yard and caused a little scene trying to play with their dogs. Obviously for now we will keep her tied up for both when at rest, and when we take her to play but we don’t want this to always be he reality, ideally we should be able to trust her to stay near us without being tied up when we are outside working or playing.
any tips to help either of these issues would be great. We’ve tried a lot of things and after a few months my mom specifically has lost all her patience with the dog and whenever she acts up just ties her up outside and eliminates the problem rather than dealing with it which in my observation has had my dog acting up even more so than she did as she is tied up most of the day which she is a sudden change.
1. Jumping/ getting excited/biting
When we get home from being out she will jump and sometimes play bite and that’s not the ideal reaction. We want biting to be for her toys only and we don’t allow jumping but we are not sure how to prevent this. We’ve tired ignoring this behaviour, unfortunately often times my mom and brother result to hitting or kicking her however rather than hurting her (which I know this isn’t the kind of relationship you should have with your dog) this only gets her more excited as she is a big dog and the problem only gets worse. Lately the only thing that calms her down is putting her on a leash and then she goes to lay down the majority of the time but we want to be able to have A calm welcome home to not only us but to company we have over as she is super super friendly and so easily excitable this brings me to the second issue
2. We live on an acreage that consists of a lot of open field. We used to be able to let her be free but over the last few months my mom has made the decision that she needs to be tied up all the time. We want to be able to trust her to stay on our land for both others safety and hers however whenever there is any sort of wild life (birds, coyotes, fox, rabbit etc.) she must go chase it. There is nothing that will stop her from going full tilt at whatever animal she comes across. Even when we tie her up, she has ripped through her collar once, and ripped through a rope (was already a bit cut) because she goes wild. She will bark and pull like crazy until the animal leaves. Obviously we don’t want her going after anything potentially dangerous and we want to be able to have that trust. But even if we are outside with her she will go chase them and no longer listen to us. This is the same for people but at a less extreme level. There will often be people walking or biking down the road and she will follow them sometimes, and we don’t think she would stop and come back when they get too far, we fully believe she will just follow as far and they go. She actually ran into the neighbours yard and caused a little scene trying to play with their dogs. Obviously for now we will keep her tied up for both when at rest, and when we take her to play but we don’t want this to always be he reality, ideally we should be able to trust her to stay near us without being tied up when we are outside working or playing.
any tips to help either of these issues would be great. We’ve tried a lot of things and after a few months my mom specifically has lost all her patience with the dog and whenever she acts up just ties her up outside and eliminates the problem rather than dealing with it which in my observation has had my dog acting up even more so than she did as she is tied up most of the day which she is a sudden change.